Blue Against Red and Back Again
by Becky Blue Eyes
Summary: A blue eyed blonde girl once made best friends with a powerful hedgehog Fifty years later it's the second verse, same as the first Slight AU with parallels between Shadow/Maria and Sonic/Hope friendship


**10/10/2013 update: Fixed all the TERRIBLE grammar screw ups and added in some Hope interactions with Knux, Rouge and Shadow.**

**Summary: A blue eyed blonde girl in a world made of metal once made best friends with a powerful hedgehog. Fifty years later it's the second verse, similar to the first. **

**Retelling of the Sonic series, with friendship parallels between Shadow/Maria and Sonic/Hope with the Madonna concept being thrown around. Gets kinda AU but mainly sticks to the canon games.**

**So I'd like to make a newer kind of story than I usually make in a brand new fandom, so I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

Maria Robotnik is five years old when Shadow the Hedgehog is created.

She's lived on the Space Colony ARK for as long as she can remember, growing close to her grandfather and slowly forgetting the faces of her parents and cousins. But it's ok though, because Grandpa has created a new experiment and he says it could lead to a cure for the lingering sickness in her bones.

It's the Ultimate Lifeform, and when she sees the little black ball suspended in all the machinery and tubes, she mistakes it for a shadow. The name sticks.

* * *

They become best friends when Shadow catches the three other little boys on the ARK picking on Maria. They tell her that they don't like her because she's a girl and the reason why they have to get so many shots, and it's not fair that she gets to do anything she wants and they don't. Maria cries, the boys pull on her hair, and Shadow knocks them all to the ground.

Then they start crying and parents get involved and it's a big mess, but Maria stops seeing Shadow as the Ultimate Lifeform when he asks her if she's ok. He's just her Shadow after that.

* * *

Maria isn't lonely with Shadow, but she sees how isolated she is from the idea of a "popular girl". Her friends other than Shadow are the perky geneticist Dr. Lang, the electrician Mr. Gomez who sneaks Maria sterilized Earth candies, and Grandpa. But they don't really count since they're adults, so Shadow is her anchor.

It's like having a brother but not really, someone closer than even a very best friend. There's books about romanticism and the idea of soul mates, so maybe that fit better. They were both born and raised in a world of lifeless metal, manually adding back in spirit to the ARK. He knows her the best, so even if they fight a lot—he's too headstrong and she's too kind—she knows she can't live without him.

She's pretty sure that he thinks the same way though, since he shadows her every movement if Grandpa isn't working with him. So she basks in the knowledge of having such a good friend.

* * *

Shadow is stubborn and moody and tries to be "cool" like the movies Grandpa brings up from Earth, but he is Maria's very best friend. They stick together, him always shadowing her movements and yes she realizes how appropriate his name is but she won't tease him about it. She's a big girl of eight now, and if she's old enough to explore the ARK with only Shadow at her side, then she'll not make the obvious jokes.

No, she'd rather prank the fussy scientists who worry too much, assist Grandpa in his theories, and try—and fail—to do gymnastics in the room where the floor is only a giant window over the Earth. It's like dancing through space, like being gods, and Maria laughs at the idea of her Shadow, who hordes chocolate pudding and carries her around like a princess when Maria gets out of breath, being a god.

Grandpa doesn't laugh.

* * *

She loves the color blue. Blue like the skies below, blue like the energy thrumming through the power lines, blue like the eyes she inherited from the mother she can't remember. And she wears it well in her opinion, dark and blue fabric paired together.

Shadow's a hedgehog so he only has to wear gloves and shoes, and he favors red. It's even in his quills that are too sharp for Maria to properly run her fingers through, and his eyes are like the super giants in Grandpa's astronomy lessons. Gold too, in his hover shoes (she wore his shoes once, nearly broke her spine when she lost control and planted into a wall. So worth it), and white to piece it all together.

But mostly red against her blue, and they add color to the sterile metal walls she calls home.

* * *

Maria makes plans about what they'll do below once she's cured. She wants to run, to be strong enough to lift whole mountains, and she doesn't care that Shadow laughs at that dream because it's awesome. When she admits that as long as she's strong enough to support him as he supports her, he just hugs her in the window room.

Their first stops will be anywhere with a beach with a big blue sea for her to learn how to swim in, so maybe the islands that dot the planet. There's all sorts of zones to blast through, sights and smells beyond the simulation room that always fails to make an accurate citrus. And Maria might cut her hair short like the ultra fashionable ladies with futuristic bobs, and wear sturdy boots so she can keep up with Shadow.

All in blue of course, to match his red, and to match the Earth she can't wait to finally experience for herself.

* * *

When the military first comes to yell at her grandfather, Maria doesn't understand. Why do they think her Shadow is a weapon? Sure, he can do all sorts of amazing things—"They're called Chaos Blasts," he smirks, "and they're very powerful and only I can do them!—but he's not some angry beast under their control!

She sulks in her bedroom until Shadow comes hours later and runs her around the ARK. He's so fast, and she's so weak sometimes that it's almost too hard to breathe, but she feels safe in his arms.

They don't talk about GUN's demands. Neither does anyone else, and by the time she's eleven Maria half-forgets the intruders.

* * *

Maria's family comes up to the ARK exactly once, and only her uncle's part of the Robotnik clan. Colin is two years younger than Maria and Ivo is just a little baby, but Maria is excited because they're younger than Dr. Lang, who's an ancient 23.

Colin is a trooper who keeps up with Maria and Shadow's shenanigans. He has gray colored eyes like Grandpa and Ivo and maybe all the Robotnik boys, but they light up blue when she takes him to the window room. And although Shadow scared him a little at first, he's much nicer than the other three boys on the ARK.

He and Ivo have to go home after a week because his parents got in a big fight with Grandpa, but Colin promises to visit her again. Shadow mutters after he's gone that he kinda liked the little snot, and Maria laughs.

* * *

The next time the government arrives Maria isn't so lucky to have time to pout. It's in the middle of her sleep cycle, and she's dragged out of bed by a bleeding Shadow, his eyes so large in his face that they glow in the low lights.

They're rounding up the scientists and shooting them, even the families and the other children and Maria is so afraid. Grandpa tells Shadow to take her and run and Maria can't breathe past her hammering heart, because they have nowhere to go.

Shadow's hurt—he was shot by the soldiers, Maria has never hated anyone before but they hurt her Shadow—and he can't carry her like he used to. Instead he takes her hand and Maria sees blood in the hallways, blood against the walls, and Maria trembles. So much red against the giant blue Earth, it's disorienting and she wants to throw up but she has to be strong just this once.

So she runs with the sun behind the planet she's about to abruptly visit, pushing wasted muscles to the limits, and puts all her faith in her Shadow.

* * *

Maria never makes it to Earth. Instead she saves Shadow, her very best friend and judging from the way GUN was destroying her world, possibly her only living loved one.

When the bullet hits Maria bursts into tears because it's a pain so different than the chafing weakness she's learned to live around. The soldier screams and Shadow is falling away, away...she's on the ground and it doesn't hurt anymore.

The Earth is still blue even as her dress turns a murky purple though, at least Maria has that.

And it's the strangest thing, but the sun comes from around, even though sunrise won't be for another four hours. It's two suns actually, two tiny suns flying through space as if they were dancing gods. Maria hopes that they lead Shadow safely to the ground, that they keep Colin and Ivo safe from GUN. Most of all, she hopes that they help Shadow make the world a better place, where there are no bullets to make red where there should be blue.

Maria would've sworn that the gods were chasing the escape pods and smiling in agreement to her requests, but she's dead by this point.

* * *

The years after are terrible for the Robotnik family.

Maria's death foreshadows the sudden accidents wiping our her relatives. Her parents die in a car crash, her aunt's family in a tragic home invasion, and her uncle by suicide. Gerald is whisked away to the deepest levels of GUN's high security prison, and Colin and Ivo disappear in the chaos.

But in that chaos brings a greater terror than the one inflicted on the ill-fated ARK. Maria's body was brought to Gerald in a cruel mercy, and before she was taken away again to be cremated and scattered, he got a hold of her favorite blue dress, stained a murky purple.

Colin was a smart boy, smart enough to change his name and simmer in the hatred that consumed Gerald's soul. And who knew, maybe Gerald's greatest creation could be fitted into his greatest wish for revenge.

* * *

Colin grows up and his little brother becomes a mad genius like their grandfather, taking the disgraced family name. Colin doesn't care though, since has two beautiful children, and one of them is dastardly enough to fulfill the plans given to Colin by his grandfather. Hope is charming and intelligent and positively wicked, but Colin Jr. (his little bastard Snively, always clinging to Hope's skirts even though he was the elder sibling) is as much of an evil genius as his increasingly infamous uncle Ivo, and his beady eyes light up at the prospect of bringing chaos to the world.

But then Colin and Hope die in another one of those terrible accidents and Snively's excitement turns to grief, and grief turns to obsession. He has to save his perfect little sister, the one who was always by his side, and the plans could be tweaked. It was versatile after all, and Snively has all the notes that even crazy Uncle Ivo didn't.

Ivo is supportive, and Snively has the technology. Thirty six years after Maria bled to death on the ARK, Project Madonna is initiated.

* * *

Snively names her Hope, because she was as worthy to the name as possible. And she's a blue eyed blonde little girl that smacked of Maria and had a mind honed to the Robotnik genius, just like her "aunt".

But she's also ditzy, and annoyingly sunny and bossy and energetic, and for every moment of being the perfect lab partner/instrument in the world's destruction, she's also running freely through the dinky little island Snively set himself up on. Ivo laughs and Snively disciplines and Hope watches the sun rise like a grapefruit in the mornings.

It's enchanting, the start of days filled with endless wonder, and when she turns four she switches out all her boring blue dresses for bright and bold red.

* * *

Hope Kintobor is five years old when she meets Sonic the Hedgehog.

He's a drifter, an orphan like so many Mobian children tended to be, and he finds him napping in her favorite tree. She would've gladly shared but then he had to go and declare that the tree was his, and it was obviously not, and she battled him for the right.

But once she climbs up the branches he disappears in a blur and she falls. He catches her before she hits the ground, but it didn't make up for his stupid face and it was his fault in the first place!

She picks up the tree and throws it at him. He screams like a little baby and she giggles.

* * *

She was ready to hate Sonic forever, but then the dam to the nearby river breaks. Hope and other kids were playing in the stream, so the air was filled with disorientating screams when a sudden wall of water rushes their way.

Hope is fast—much faster than people her age, much smarter than all the adults on the island except for Daddy and the mustache man he talks to, and much stronger than anyone else she's ever met—but she doesn't have Daddy to pull her away like the other parents and instead of running out the sides she just runs down the stream's path.

She knows better because she's supposed to be smart but she's afraid because that's a lot of water and Daddy wasn't here and suddenly she's in someone's arms. Sonic never went by the river since he was a baby and didn't like water, but he saves her even though they hated each other.

When they're safely out of the water's path Hope hugs him for all his worth. Daddy said to never touch a hedgehog or a needlemouse's quills as they're too sharp for human skin, but the hug is soft and Hope knows they'll be friends from now on.

* * *

They explore the entirety of South Island by the time Hope's eight, and she's even stronger than before. Sonic thinks that it's cool, how she can lift up a car with little effort, but Daddy makes her keep it under wraps. She's too short and too skinny to be so strong, he tells her, and people will be suspicious if she acts any other way.

It's the reason why Sonic's basically her only friend. Honey is nice and Tiara gets to travel all over the place, but Sonic is the one she trusts the most. Sometimes even more than Daddy, because he has a weird habit of calling her his sister when she's his daughter and weren't crazy people supposed to be avoided?

Oh well, Hope didn't really care about weird stuff like that, not when there was a whole world to explore and the sun was like a giant ruby disk every morning.

* * *

Things change when Hope is ten.

Daddy and the mustache man were up to very, very bad things. Hope knew about the robots and Snively constructing giant metal loops and labyrinths in Scrap Brain Zone, his lab—she was his assistant, of course she knew! But she doesn't know about the Robotiziser Beam, and she doesn't know that the mustache man has been angry with her father for a long time.

Ivo...Dr. Robotnik (Eggman was more like it, he was shaped too much like an egg to be healthy) comes, takes the secret files that Hope wasn't supposed to know about out of Daddy's safe, and turns Daddy into a robot.

He calls her Madonna and tries to shoot at her with the Beam, but Sonic pulls her out-of-the-way and they have to fight him because he wants to take over the world and that's a kind of terrible that Hope wants no part in. His stupid egg flyer thing is broken easily by Hope's punches and Sonic jumping into a ball, and he runs away.

But then he turns almost everyone on South Island into a robot, and their day isn't quite over yet.

* * *

They make a good team. Hope knows the island like the back of her hand plus all the secrets that her father built in, and Sonic's fast enough to keep them energized through the nonstop running and fighting.

She leads them through the rings to the Special Zone, and he's the one to collect the beautiful emeralds inside. Something in the back of her mind calls them Chaos Emeralds, and the name fits because the Special Zones are crazier than the idea that two kids could save all of South Island.

And they do. Dr. Robotnik flies away from the gutted Scarp Brain Zone (Colin's secret laboratory goes up in smoke, along with the scattered remains of the robot body his uncle destroyed in spite), the citizens are returned to normal, Hope wraps up Sonic's battered body and they're heroes to all of South Island. Sonic doesn't say anything when she cries—she's the last Kintobor alive and she was overflowing with painfully blue feelings, but he just holds her and cements their bond to an unbreakable level.

* * *

Hope prides herself on remembering the charts of her planet's odd solar system, because Dr. Robotnik heads off to Little Planet quickly after.

He takes along a little hedgehog girl named Amy Rose, and the hostage situation puts a damper on an otherwise fun adventure. Past the hysteria from South Island's takeover, Hope is a born adventurer, and Sonic is never one to turn away a shot at ultimate adrenaline. And there's time travel involved, which is way past cool and gives Hope extra motivation to keep more families from being destroyed like hers. The air is refreshingly crystal most of the time—every now and then they would go to a Bad Future, and hack up their lungs in the polluted zones—and it's far easier to collect the little Time Stones.

But Dr. Robotnik has perfected his robot building, and Metal Sonic is a cold hunk of metal with glaring red eyes. Hope hates that neon red, especially when those eyes stare down at her when Metal Sonic breaks her arm. It hurts and she wants to scream but sucks it down because Sonic's green eyes are wide with fear and the robot's chasing them in a race to the death. Sonic's forced to pull her along as they run for their lives because she's not as fast as him and he can't attack if he's carrying her.

Hope feels useless and weak, but she gets her revenge after they beat Metal Sonic and free Amy. Dr. Robotnik based his fortress off of her father's work, and in her makeshift sling (she promises herself to buy more red dresses, as this one's bottom half is sacrificed for the greater good. Sonic swears she doesn't look like a hoochie, and the higher hem does give her more room to run in) she easily leads Sonic to Dr. Robotnik's defeat.

They return to South Island victorious and Hope watches the sun set ruby against the Little Planet's fading silhouette in the sky.

* * *

In the time it takes Dr. Robotnik to enslave Westside Island, Sonic learns how to fly an old plane that Tiara's father wants to get rid of. Hope is smart enough to learn the controls with ease, so she mainly lets him do the learning with her pitching in. She makes a great teacher when they stay on task; most of the time they run off to do more exciting things than learn how to yaw or bank or other boring things.

But their vacation time is up, and it's not like they have any reason to stay. Sonic's only ties to the ground are through Hope, and refuses to let Dr. Robotnik destroy any more families. Honey and Tiara wave them off, and they bid South Island farewell.

They meet a young orphan fox that's even more brilliant than Hope. His name is Miles Prower, but Sonic calls him Tails because Miles is a dumb name and Tails agrees. He's only five to Sonic's twelve and Hope's new eleven, but he's a fast learner and knows Westside Island better than they do. It's not like they can just leave him to be bullied by the jerks who pick on his two tails, and he tags alongwith tails whipping like a helicopter.

Hope likes Tails, even though they look too similar for her tastes. She just readjusts her red jumper and keeps running after Sonic and watching her friends' backs, enjoying the adventure.

* * *

They collect seven Chaos Emeralds in wacky new Special Zones that they hold mini race battles in, and she and Sonic are taken to a beautiful place. The world glows blue against gold and purple and Hope can't put her finger on it but the colors are familiar and she clutches her red dress to stop the shivers. It's kinda cold in there anyway, so she keeps to Sonic's side for comfort.

At the very end there is a sea of stars, and energy flows through her veins. It's red, then it's blue, then gold seeps through her very being and it hurts like getting riddled with robot blasts but then it doesn't. A million hopes for the future swirl in her center, and Hope grins because she's the strongest girl on earth. She can do anything as long as she had her Sonic by her side. She can save Westside Island, she can give Tails a new home, she can uphold the world in one hand...

Someone wishes for all the people on Earth to be given a chance for happiness, and Hope agrees.

They return with a painful thud and Tails laughs at them because Hope's skirt blows up and Sonic lands on his face, and Hope watches her two friends play fight. It made them all happy, and that happiness glowed in her soul like the sun in the sky.

* * *

She sees the sun behind the Earth because she's falling towards it.

She and Sonic went up to the Death Egg, a terrible machine world that Dr. Robotnik wanted to control the world with. Inside was another robot made in Sonic's image, and with metal spines sharp enough to make Hope's fists bleed it crushed Sonic into a wall.

His screams (he was screaming like a baby but it wasn't funny, it was terrifying and this would never be funny as long as she lived) made her scream and gold exploded from her gut. Her eyes turned red and she destroyed the machine because it was evil and Sonic was bleeding red, red all over the floor and walls and making his blue quills look a murky purple.

It was obscene, she supposed to be red and he blue and that was that. With golden hands she fixed the gashes gouged into his stomach, and she gave him all her strength to defeat Dr. Robotnik and save the world. She had faith in him, and she watched Sonic, healed and vibrant like the edge of a sonic boom, do just that.

But he kinda caused the Death Egg to explode and now she's falling and she can't breath in the empty space. Before the Earth swallows her like a drop of blood in the sea, Sonic catches her, and he's on fire. Golden fire, and his eyes are red like the rising sun and she wants to stare into them forever but she's tired after giving him all her power. So she just watches blue swirl around them, safe in arms that warm the lingering weakness in her body, and she doesn't mind the blue because they are like golden gods in the sky.

He sets her on the plane—Tails was flying to rescue them, he's such a good little brother—and they fly in his after trail towards the coming day.

* * *

Hope is twelve and smacks her forehead because she is getting too old for his crap.

Dr. Robotnik is back _again_, and he is in a Death Egg _again_, but this time he got some crazy hermit echidna on a floating island to come after her friends. Sonic, still sporting a bruise from the punch that literally knocked the emeralds out of him, is itching for a fight and Tails is using Hope's father's salvaged notes for his own science between flying them around the place like a private plane service.

Hope is in the middle of everything. She links Sonic's breezy nature to Tails' steadfast roots. She translates Tails' techno babble to Sonic's buffy speak and back again. The sunshine to Sonic's sarcasm and Tails' sensitivity. The human element, the blonde bombshell, the red strength to blue speed and yellow flight with intelligence of all sorts spinning around.

So yeah, she's getting too old for this schtick, but she's having the time of her life. Not to mention that Knuckles is a _red_ echidna with powerful arms, and Hope will simply not stand for that; she has an image to uphold!

* * *

The mural in the Hidden Palace Zone is beautifully made, with a giant golden god fighting against that which would steal the Master Emerald that Knuckles is so obsessed with. Another golden god supports the first, and Hope feels something slide into place when she sees the mural.

The image is kept in her mind for the rest of the day. In that time Dr. Robotnik turns on Knuckles, the echidna helps them through Sky Sanctuary, and they're up in space again. Tails stays behind to guide the Death Egg to its final destruction, and Hope and Sonic explode into godhood.

They flying through a sea of asteroids at the speed of light, and Hope fills herself on the raging strength that this super hyper amazing transformation gives her. The hope of girls just like herself rings in her ears from across time and space, and with Dr. Robotnik's defeat, she gives the world another chance at happiness.

When Knuckles grudgingly apologizes after the Death Egg is a memory and everyone's covered in broken robot grease, Hope smiles as her brothers start up a play argument with him. He was grouchy, but Hope figured she could share the right to the color red.

* * *

Hope doesn't notice the years pass until she's almost fourteen and Dr. Robotnik is threatening Station Square this time.

Her red dress goes to her mid thighs with sleek white and red boots to the knee—Tails makes them friction resistant and able to withstand a good robot thrashing, and she gives him the world's biggest hug and a day of fun in thanks—and her long blonde braids were torn off in a tournament gone awry. She found her old friend Honey there, and the cat girl cut her hair into a wonderfully fashionable bob, all sorts of 50s robot retro.

Honey and Tiara are with her now in an adventure filled to the brim with gossip and girl power, and they split up from Sonic and Tails to save a half grown up Amy from Dr. Robotnik (Eggman, as she and Sonic assert). They kick robot butt, gang up on Knuckles when he acts like a big fat jerk, and help Sonic defeat all the machines, but godhood beckons with Chaos' return.

Their own prayers meld with the wishes across Station Square, and Hope joins hands with Sonic as they defeat the enraged god. This is the only time they're equals instead of compliments, and she savours the feeling of saving the day with equal parts joy and smug satisfaction.

* * *

They're growing up nicely, out of childish immaturity and properly adolescent immaturity. When Sonic's thrown in jail for crimes he didn't commit and Hope along with him for good measure, they skateboard down Central City with a helicopter blade and laugh as the astounded army men. Their sloppy mechs are no use against Hope's superior grasp—Tails and her father would puke at how poorly the Mad Dog performed—and Sonic tells hope to bail once the mech is downed since she's a bombshell, not a jailbird. She clips him with one of Tails' tiny tracking devices and runs, only glimpsing a dark shadow appear by Sonic in a flash of green.

It works out, since Tails is begging to test out his fighter plane mecha thing he built all by himself and Hope has always wanted to trash a GUN prison. Teenage rebellion and all that. Eggman's there with Amy for some Chaos forsaken reason, and Hope trusts that Tails can handle that mess. What's more important is getting Sonic out, but along the way Hope finds a brunette girl in white with glaring gray eyes and a face just like Hope's.

And that Mean Clone Girl can pack a good punch, Hope will give her that. But she beats off the faker with her epic fighting skills honed from four years of awesome. If she forgets to make sure the girl is properly tied to a pipe Hope can be forgiven, because she has to figure out how to help Tails break Sonic out of jail and there's a timer put on their heads because Eggman can't keep well alone.

Mean Clone Girl breaks free and gets Hope in a bad spot. Hope goes down fighting but her opponent has insane health recovery, like Hope's golden powers on steroids. She passes out with a punch to the temple and before she passes out she sees a black Sonic skate to her feet and stare down at her with wide red eyes like like a grapefruit sun.

* * *

Hope's on the ARK and her life is changing again.

The other hedgehog's name is Shadow, and for the life of her she can't understand why she remembers that. The other girl is Madonna who wants her dead, there's a bat named Rouge flitting around, and Hope doesn't like playing hostage for Eggman as it is. But Shadow calls her Maria most of the time and it's like Hope's father calling her his sister, and Hope misses Sonic because at least he understands who she is.

She wanders the ARK out of sheer boredom, until Eggman blows up the moon to be a giant egg-shaped jerk. It cuts her deep to see science abused for evil purposes, and she gets on her soapbox to lecture everyone about why they suck so freaking hard.

Shadow listens unlike the others. Shadow is...surprisingly gentle, for a guy on the dark side. He keeps Madonna from tearing off her head, anyway, and he is freakishly similar to Sonic in that they are mirror images of each other. Speed, power, Chaos abilities that Hope never spoke a word about because her father's grooming ran deep, and a wide stubborn streak that has Hope messing up her hair in frustration.

He hates the ARK as much as she does, because there's too many red stains on the floors and walls that remind Hope of Sonic being shredded on the Death Egg. She wonders why he never goes inside certain halls and rooms, but she's old enough to not ask.

* * *

Her father's secret notes are on the computer because it turns out that Rouge is a double agent from GUN—Hope wonders how many diamond minds are raided for the bat's paychecks—and she finds a juicy bit of info. Hope is disturbed because why are Colin Kintobor Jr.'s notes on the ARK and why are the computer controls so user friendly for Hope and _oh_, oh, oh no.

The notes are on there because they're a copy of Gerald Kintobor's great plan to destroy the world through the Ultimate Lifeform and Project Madonna. Madonna herself is a bootleg version that Dr. Robotnik whipped up from incomplete data he stole from Hope's father, explaining why...explaining why she didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes like Hope Kintobor I and Maria Robotnik.

Hope sinks to her knees and watches her genesis flash through the glossy screens. Everything from her augmented strength to her underlying genius to why Shadow kept calling her Maria. Kintobor is such an obvious name that it fools everyone, and Hope's eyes burn with tears when her father's notes compliment those on screen. No wonder he called her sister, since the real Hope was mixed in her DNA as well.

Shadow finds her curled under the console and carries her to a room filled with soft blue sheets. For once she doesn't mind the color, because all her red only reminds her that two girls died to make her complete.

* * *

Commotion from outside brings Hope out of her sulk, and she firmly fixes her hair and adjusts her favorite red dress. Blue feelings always kept her down before, but she doesn't dare to let them win, not when Sonic and the world are counting on her to get a grip. She finds Amy chilling in a hallway and grabs her before Eggman can. Amy's more of a lover than a fighter, but she has a wicked hammer and strong arms to boot, and they cause chaos in the upper levels of the colony.

It's a new twist on an old story, with Hope being the speed and Amy the power, gravity making them fly through beating up robots and Amy's valley-girl insight complimenting Hope's intelligence. Hope catches herself up on news—Sonic and Tails are around somewhere with a fake Chaos emerald to overload the ARK's cannon, how neat—and shares information she stole from the computers. Amy is loud in her green tank top and orange mini skirt and bright pink quills, and Hope loves the new colors against the lifeless gray.

When Madonna shows up with giant artificial Chaos blobs to kick their butts and ship them back to Eggman, Hope is furious. The most fun she had ever since she and Sonic teamed up with two other South Island kids years ago and this is how it ends?

* * *

Eggman shoots Sonic into space and blows him up, and Hope is beyond enraged, her soul bleeding furious red. Madonna makes the mistake of challenging her to a final fight, and Hope is happy to oblige. Her attacks are super powered but sloppy, and Madonna wears her down to an ugly fight/cry. Sonic's dead, her best friend is dead, Hope refuses to believe that the only good blue in her life has been snuffed out to glaring red and—Sonic isn't dead.

Hope doesn't know how she knows this, but her gut swirls with knowledge that her bond with Sonic hasn't been cut. Hope breaks into a giddy smile even as she takes and deals damage, and really, she was so faint of heart. Sonic was amazing, he was her hero and partner and he was as much of a god as she was. He had a Chaos Emerald, and even if it is fake, he had the knowledge to use it to its full potential because Hope knows how simply brilliant her best friend can be.

Besides, isn't she a fake? Isn't she just a mishmash of two DNA sets linked together with selected traits and an aura of Chaos energy? Well screw that label, because unlike Madonna, Hope doesn't limit herself to being Hope Kintobor I and Maria Robotnik's twisted revenge play.

She is their best parts, their hopes and dreams fulfilled, and she smashes her fist into Madonna's gut with a flash of gold.

* * *

Hope's the one to convince Shadow to join them in the end. The ARK is going to crash into the Earth, everyone's running around like headless chickens after Gerald's insane diary entry (Hope figures it's the eyes, gray eyes drained of cheer and filled with madness), and they're standing in a room with a window for a floor.

He's stubborn and vicious and too moody for her tastes, but he's lost his best friend and she isn't exactly helping by looking just like Maria. She doesn't beg, she doesn't plead; she simply asks for his help, because with all their efforts put together, they could save the Earth that Hope knew that Maria wanted only the best for.

Shadow looks at her with red eyes so different than Metal Sonic's eyes or Sonic's god mode eyes. Neutral at the heart, but capable of great strength, and Hope was the patron saint of using one's strength to great advantage.

He takes her hand, and it's like fifty years ago with a different girl in her place, but this will have to do.

* * *

Sonic and Shadow save the Earth, but Shadow is lost in the Chaos. Hope doesn't exactly know why she bursts into tears, but she has a few guesses. Sonic and Tails don't ask questions and she's so happy to have them in her family when everyone else is gone. Madonna, wickedly powerful and beautiful Madonna who teams up with Hope in the Ark's core, runs off to find her own purpose and Hope lets her. It's a bit much to invoke her name in such a happy way, but she hopes for the best for her sister in genetic arms.

Eggman leaves to cook up a new plot, and they all return to Earth. Knuckles refuses to talk about Rouge and Hope ribs her grumpy ally until he swats her away and storms off to his island. Rouge takes one of the rings Shadow left behind—Hope is given the other, and she doesn't ask Sonic why—and absconds to wherever sneaky GUN agents go. Hopes calls Honey and Tiara and tells them what went down, and she and her brothers visit Westside Island for old time's sake.

The moon makes a funny silhouette in the night sky, but she doesn't care for the pale white anyway; the rest of the world was so vibrant, and she was ready to paint the town red with blurs of blue and gold.

* * *

Life goes on as it usually does. Sonic, Tails and Hope defeat Eggman and the other villains of the week in between arguing over pizza toppings and discovering new islands and zones to explore. Knuckles is a well-meaning jerk who needs a new color palette, Rouge takes her shopping whenever they run into each other and Hope teams up with Honey, Tiara, Amy, and even Madonna for girl power escapades. She greets the rising sun when her brothers sleep in and wears her altered surname with pride, because somebody needs to.

Shadow didn't actually die and she likes to hang out with him. He's like a trip into the past, letting her see his vision of the girl who gave her a reason to exist. But even more than that, he's a well-spoken and confident guy who loves chocolate pudding and challenges her and Sonic to rival races and is curious about the world that Hope saves every other week; if he slips up and calls her Maria now and then Hope honestly doesn't mind.

He and Madonna are always seen together when Madonna isn't off doing her own thing, and it's like the weird darkish neutral version of Hope and Sonic. She's sure that Maria would've approved, even if her skirt is a bit shorter than the blue dresses that are locked away in the ARK.

Hope flies through new zones and interstellar theme parks and time conundrums and worlds beyond South Island's little abandoned hut on the edge of a hollowed out zone. Sometimes she's a god in the stars, sometimes she's a blonde bombshell in a giant robot battle, and sometimes she's just a happy girl living life to the fullest.

Either way, she's burning bright red against the blues of the past, present and future, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

**And that's my not-so-short one shot!**

**Basically, I incorporated Hope Kintobor form the Archie comic book, Maria's original design (brunette, gray eyes, white dress) from Archie, and Madonna from Sonic 1 concept art. Especially Hope's awesome character and Madonna's potential to be the original Sonic sidekick.**

**Here's the logic of Hope's existence: Gerald, twisted with grief, gives Colin Sr. Maria's DNA and the blueprints to make a clone of Maria with augmented brains and brawn so she can help Shadow destroy the Earth; it's a twisted version of the Shadow/Maria friendship. Colin Sr. gives this plan to Snively, who keeps it from Eggman. His sister Hope dies and he adds hope's DNA into the project, creating Hope v2. **

**Hope has super strength, high intelligence (200 IQ), and quick healing. Then she gets Chaos powers from the first Hidden Palace, allowing her to heal other's injuries, transfer her strength to others and create soul bonds with those who also have a Super mode, namely Sonic. This is how a human girl, especially one who shares Maria's small height and weight, is able to keep up with Sonic on their adventures and start adventures of her own.**

**Madonna is created when Eggman recreates Project Madonna from Snively's notes, which were half destroyed in the attack that killed Snively. She has greater healing abilities and a sharper mind, but is physically weaker than Hope and doesn't have Chaos powers. It doesn't stop her from being able to keep up with Shadow, and she and Hope have an interesting sister dynamic.**

**I'm sorry that Hope has more screen time than Maria, but Maria's life was much shorter and less action packed. Her postmortem influence is also, unfortunately, more significant in the grand scheme of things.**

**Other things that changed: Amy keeps her green shirt and orange skirt from Sonic CD to distinguish her from Hope, but in a more modern way. Honey and Tiara exist and help Hope in "spin-off game" adventures. Sonic, Tails and Hope are the Dream Team (STH, see what I did there), and the rivalry between Sonic and Eggman is caused by the Kintobors making a mess of things.**

**I hope that you liked my plot bunny! :D**


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